Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-10-19
THE NANITOBA' WESTWARD
ROUTE.

OF tn0 montana CODCFSl I'VE
tho Bitter Root Valley tho Most Feast
BILE Outlet to the Coast.
The following item is Of more interest t.
the people of Butte than may be at first
apparent: "A lewiston exchange ha,
been reliably informed that a party Of sur
veyors of the Manitoba Railroad Company
are surveying in the Clearwater country
and q few days since were in Mount Idaho
purchasing supplies for the party. The
Manitoba Railroad people are said to hav.
expressed themselves as being greatly sur
prised at the Northern Pacific for building
it's main line where it did. when there wae
such . feasible route as the one through the
Clearwater country" It is well known
that the Manitoba people Intend to push
heir line through to the West coast, but
there is great uncertainty az to the route
that will be adopted.
TIE FIRST PROPOSED
and warmly advocated by the press oil
Northern Montana, was to follow the
Marias River to the Marias Pass. thence
by q devious course to the Kootenai,
thence direct West to the skagit Pass, and
down Skagit River to Bellingham Bay.
This route need not be seriously consid-
cred, for il the line ever reached the Koote-
mai it would stop there, the succession OF
mountain ranges between that river and
the Pacific presenting a series of practically
unsurmountable obstacles. The next
scheme was to push the Manitoba west
from Great Falls up Sun River, over a di
vide to the Dearborn, crossing the Rockies
through Cadotte Pass; down the Blackfoot
to Missoula; down the Missoula River to
the St.. Regis Borgia, up the latter to
it's head. across Eastern Washington
to the mouth OF the Wenatchee, through
the terrible Wenatchee canyon and Sno-
qualmie Pass to Seattle, on Puget Sound.
This route, though perhaps NOSE feasible
than the first, also presents Q series of for
midable obstacles in the Bitter Root Noun
tains, the Grand Coulee, the bridging of the
Columbia where it is sunk between high
bluffs and q three mile tunnel through Sno-
qualime Pass. Though this pass is the
tains there rise so abruptly hat they can
be crossed on a grade of 116 feet per
mile, except by boring a tunnel three miles
in length. By the third route. which seems
to offer
MANY AND GREAT
all others, the Montana Central would
q division of the main line, which
be extended west from Butte by the
most practicable route to the Bitter Root
VALLEY, up the Lou Lou, through Lou Lou
Pass. to the Clearwater, down that river to
Lewiston. across the bend of Snake River
TO the Columbia, ~ d down it's north bank
to the coast, reaching, by the shor. est pos
sible route, Portland and Ilwaco-the lat.
ter "a seaport opposite Astoria Puget
Sound, and Gray's HarboI could also be
reached by a branch from the main line
west OF the Cascade Mountains. 1t is be-
lieved that the practicability OF building u
railroad from Butte to the Bitter Root has
demonstrated by Union Pacific sur
veys. The Lou Lou and the Clearwater
we're surveyed years ago by the Northern
and Oregon TraDscOntinental and
proved to offer great advantages ia light
ness OF grades and inexpensive work. The
were not carried through the Lou
Lou Pass, as tn: engineers ran out OF pro-
visions about the time they reached the
and hurried over hat part of the
" FORK.
THE PASS IS TRAvERsED
BY the old Me- Percez trial, which has long
been a thoroughfare for both Indians and
passing back inc forth between
and Idaho. It is the unanimous
OF those who ore acquainted with
he pass that it can be crossed by moder-
,te grades without tunnelirg. By follow
ng down the Columbia. the formidable
and enormously expensive tunnel
ng that would be encountered in crossing I
he Cascade Mountains farther north wouI6
'e avoided. Should this route be adopted |
~ the Manitoba road, it would shorten
he distance from Butte to Portla nd. as
compared with the Northern Pacific, by |
bout 200 miles. Butte should make a
trong effort to influence the adoption OF
his route. the Importance of which to her
itiz ans is so obvious that it is needless to
nlarge thereon. II the Manitoba survey
RS are. as stated, surveying the Clearwater
cute, it is, to say the lea.t, an encourag-
ng sign.